


Absond or Ensconce

by basku_byAnne



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, Lee Taeyong-centric, M/M, Romance, Stupidity, idk what to do for tags, it looks like they're like tumblr tags tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16424030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basku_byAnne/pseuds/basku_byAnne
Summary: Tyong wakes up and realizes just what happened the night before.





	1. - Stupidity

Taeyong peeled open his eyes, glancing around the bright room. He was laying down, wearing a white shirt that had obtained stains sometime last night, boxer shorts, and nothing else. While scanning the room, Taeyong had noticed a person attached to his side. He dropped his head back into the pillow, groaning slightly and scanning his memory to figure out how he had ended up asleep with Ten at his side. Taeyong came up with nothing but a recollection of sitting around a table with a beer and his bandmates. How did it get to this?

 He picked Ten off his side and rolled out of the bed as quietly as possible, in hopes to keep Ten asleep. Since Ten didn’t shift after he moved, Taeyong assumed he has succeeded and slipped out of the room.

 Taeil was sitting on the couch, scrolling through Twitter when Taeyong emerged. He glanced up briefly to see who it was, murmured a “morning,” and resumed staring at his phone.

 Taeyong grunted in response and walked into the kitchen to find a glass of water. He opened a cabinet, searching for clean a glass in the meticulous way that many made fun of him for. He picked one up, scratching at a stain when Taeil spoke up.

 “So… how much of last night do you remember?”

 “Not much, why?” Taeyong replied, filling his glass with water while glancing around the dirty dormroom with disgust.

 “Are you sure? It was, uh, pretty crazy.”

 “What do you mean? We just got drunk right?” Taeyong took a sip of his water, letting the cool liquid rehydrate his dry mouth.

 “Uh, well yes, we were drunk.” Taeil looked up from his phone again, glancing around before continuing. “Drunk enough you don’t remember the kiss.”

 Taeyong choked on his water, the memory rushing back to him. Water dripped down his chin and onto his already stained shirt as he gaped at his own stupidity. 

 “So… I guess you remember now.” Taeil said somewhere nearby, returning his gaze to his phone screen. Taeyong didn’t notice, his moment of idiocy playing in his head over and over again.

 The room was dark, and there was a game of something going on. Taeyong wasn’t really paying attention, rather staring at Ten. He was in shock, Ten’s beauty in the dim light was breathtaking. He didn’t know if he was breathing Ten was so handsome. His drunk smile was the cutest thing Taeyong had ever seen. Taeyong himself was smiling, but it was a smile of affection. The kind where just one side of his mouth turns up. Kinda like a smirk, but without the malice.

 He stumbled forward, fumbling with Ten’s Thai name to get his attention. It worked, Ten turned his silly smile towards the taller figure heading towards him.

 Taeyong put one hand around Ten’s head and the other around his torso, pulling Ten so their entire torsos were touching. Running his fingers through Ten’s hair, Taeyong began to lean closer. Ignoring the stares from his fellow teammates, he planted his lips on Ten’s, savoring the perfect moment.

 “You gonna close your mouth or just stand there?” Taeil asked, snapping Taeyong back into reality. He closed his mouth, set down the glass, and tried to take in the weight of what his drunk mind had done last night.  _ In front of the whole team _ . A kiss. With Ten. On purpose. Never would he ever live this down.

 “Does Ten know?” Taeyong asks abruptly, looking at Taeil again.

 “How am I supposed to know if Ten knows? He’s still sleeping, right? Worry about it when he wakes up, you have other things to be doing.”

 “Right… Okay…” Taeyong downed the rest of his water and started towards back towards his bedroom to clean up before dance practice.

 Johnny walked out of his room just as Taeyong made it to his own door. Pausing, Taeyong turned to Johnny.

 “Do you remember?”

 “The freak Tyong, I just woke up.” Johnny squinted at Taeyong, trying to understand what he was asking.

 “No, of course, I don’t remember. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t remember.”

 Taeyong eyed Johnny suspiciously but knew he wasn’t gonna get any more info, so he continued into his room to change into dancing clothes.

 Creeping into the room, Taeyong saw Ten lying on the bed, still fast asleep. The last thing Taeyong wanted was to confront his friend about their “moment,” so he started playing the quiet game again. He didn’t want to wake Ten, but he wanted to get to the studio as quickly as possible. Trying to go through drawers quietly wasn’t easy, nor shifting through hangers quickly.

 But somehow Taeyong didn’t only choose an outfit, he put it on without waking Ten. Heaving a deep sigh of relief he slipped back out of the room, grabbing his phone and dropping into a pocket.

 He did a quick sweep of the dorm before leaving. Yuta was the only one still asleep, clinging to Winwin like a koala to a tree. Taeyong just hoped he wasn’t planning to do anything rash when he woke up.

 “Hey, uh, let’s keep in on the down low?” Taeyong asked Taeil on the way out the door.

 “Keep wha--oh. Yeah sure.”

 “What are we keeping?” Jaehyun asked, look back and forth between the two.

 Taeyong glanced nervously at Taeil, silently pleading for help.

 “Taeyong did something stupid last night and he doesn’t want Ten to know.”

 Jaehyun’s eyes filled with sudden understanding, and his mouth dropped open. After a solid five seconds, he closed it and looked straight at Taeyong.

 “You’re screwed, man. You were  _ so  _ into that.”

 Taeyong had started agreeing to the first sentence but stopped abruptly at the second. He glared at Jaehyun, then Taeil, then grabbed his water bottle and walked out


	2. - Stupidity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ten wakes up and does a gay panic

A loud crash jolted Ten awake. He sat up, glancing around with squinting eyes trying to find where the noise came from. But the room was still, and Ten was the only person there.

 He pulled the blanket over his head, groaning at a dull headache while avoiding the bright light streaming from the window. Ten decided he was never going to drink again.

 He was still trying to figure out how to get some water while not removing the blanket from his head when someone knocked on his door. Yelling something incoherent at the person, Ten pulled off the blanket and started out of the room.

 It wasn’t until he was near the couch in the living room before Ten realized it was Doyoung knocking at the front door of their dorm room, and not someone on the door to his room. He groaned very loudly again and melted into the cushions of the couch, looking for a blanket to pull over his head again.

 “Well then, I’m guessing you don’t remember either.” Ten noticed Taeil sitting on the other side of the couch. After offering his best look of confusion, Ten put his hands back over his eyes.

 “Remember what?” Doyoung asked from the front door, trailing behind Mark with an equally confused expression.

 “If I told you Ten would hear,” the annoyance on Taeil’s face was probably worth a lot of money. “Guys please use your brain.”

 “You could whisper.”

 “I could not and you could get over yourself.”

 Jaehyun stifled a laugh from a chair nearby, soundlessly shaking while pretending not to listen. Mark, who had made it over to the couch area, smacked him lightly before continuing on to the counter to stand and get water next to Doyoung, who was gathering glasses.

 “Anyone else want some water?” Doyoung asked as Mark arrived. He raised a finger to signal he’d like some, and Jaehyun requested a glass as well while rubbing his head and glaring at Mark.

 “Yuta does,” Winwin slides out of the back room, kinda dragging Yuta behind him. It was similar to leading a reluctant puppy on a walk, except Yuta looked a lot worse.

 “I’d like one too.” Ten croaked, his throat course and painful from the night before. He glanced up to make sure Doyoung heard him and noticed Yuta, who was staring at him. Ten shifted under his gaze, which seemed a little too sharp for comfort. Then the smile appeared, and the intensity melted into mischievousness.

 “So? How was it?” He asked, letting go of Winwin’s hand and creeping towards Ten, whose head still hurt and had no idea what Yuta was talking about.

 “How was what?” He asked, squinting and raising his hand in an attempt to block out the light from the window behind Yuta.

 “The kiss, of course.” Ten heard someone gasp. It might’ve been himself, Doyoung, or Mark, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Like a few other people in the room, Ten was thinking of the moment Yuta mentioned. The apparent “highlight” of the previous night. His kiss with Taeyong.

 Ten recalled how Taeyong called his name in that drunk voice, failing to pronounce the syllables correctly. He had turned just before Taeyong had made it all the way to him, and Ten didn’t have time to think before Taeyong’s arms were wrapped around him, pulling him as close as possible. Then closer still until their lips were touching.

 There was a tiny part of Ten telling him not to, and he almost listened to it as Taeyong paused and asked him if he didn’t like it. Future Ten hated himself for not stopping there, rather reaching up and wrapping his hands around Taeyong as he leaned back in.

 “Wow. That happened.” A faraway voice brought Ten out of his memory of the kiss. He focused straight ahead and found he was still staring at Yuta, who was still grinning like a child who'd just told the best joke of his life.

 “I don’t want water anymore.” He said, standing up abruptly. Ignoring the dryness of his mouth, he walked out of the room, back towards the hall next to his own. It was almost time for dance, so Ten had to get ready, and that was a good excuse to leave the quickly growing awkward scene. He heard a whistle from Johnny in the room next door, and his face heated up as he hurried away, blocking out everyone else's words. He expected them to be stinging and disappointed, so Ten just stopped listening.

 Ten tried not to slam the door, but he didn’t try very hard, so there was a soft slam as he stormed straight through the room into the closet. The closet had become a comfort to him. When they first moved to these dorms, Ten had pretended to unpack his clothes while sitting on the closet floor playing on his phone and had developed a love for the small space. It had filled up since he had found it, but Ten discovered it felt like it was holding him when it was filled. One could say he felt it ensconced him when filled up.

 It was quiet. There was not a sound in the room. Ten could hear his breathing, even though he tried to keep it quiet. And it was dark. For the first time since waking up, his eyes weren’t in pain. But they weren’t dry either.

 Ten sat there, furious at himself, at Taeyong, at Yuta. He shouldn’t bring Yuta into it, he wasn’t at fault. This entire thing was because of Taeyong. He wasn’t supposed to kiss Ten! He was supposed to be a friend. Nothing more… nothing less.

 And yet they had kissed. It had happened. And no matter how hard Ten could try and deny it, it had awakened feelings he didn’t know he had.

 But that wasn’t the scary part. The scary part was if anyone else found out. Ten had no idea what the members thought of gays, he had for sure heard the staff scorning them, and he didn’t even wanna think about what the media would think. Oh, what a great story that would be. “NCT U’s leader and lead singer found with locked lips??” That would be the end of their career. Taeyong would never forgive him.

 So it didn’t matter the cost. No one else could know about the kiss.


	3. - Endure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aight so i finally figured out how ao3 works and all i have to do now is actually finish the series :'D

“Five, six, seven, eight... One, two, three, four, five--” Taeyong slipped, stumbled and ended up sitting down on the dance studio floor. Despite his attempts, clearing his head enough to focus was a lot harder than he planned. He was tired, sweaty, and starting to mess up the routine. He should push through, and he knows this. Taeyong could feel it pulsing through him. A mistake means he should try harder for longer. Taeyong  _ needed _ to keep practicing until he had perfected it. But that’s not how it works. If he wanted to keep his position in NCT as leader, Taeyong had to act the part.

 Taeyong grabbed his phone, turning off the music while checking the time. Official practice was in less than an hour now, which meant he had to gather his teammates. Taeyong sighed, grabbed his water bottle, and headed towards his dorm.

 He hadn’t even made it past the doorway before his thoughts turned towards the previous night. Taeyong had a little more memory of what happened, dancing had helped and Taeil’s reminder of the kiss had returned more than he thought it would.

 Taeyong could visualize it clearly now, and he did a lot more than he wanted to. He  _ wanted _ to burn it from his mind, and throw the ashes in a river. But instead, Taeyong watched the moment in his head about a million times between the studio and his dorm. It was one of those moments of pure embarrassment that one always wants to forget, but can’t seem to stop thinking about.

 Daze would be a good word to describe Taeyong on the way back. He spent the entire walk in a daze, trying to sort through his emotions and thoughts. By the time he got to the dorm, Taeyong decided he absolutely had no feelings other than friendly compassion towards Ten. Any other feelings didn’t make sense, so he didn’t have any. And after a few minutes of drilling that into himself, Taeyong decided he believed it. But that didn’t explain why his stomach dropped to the floor as he turned the key into the dorm.

 “Who’s ready to go? Ah…” Taeyong trailed off as he saw the dorm was still a mess from their party. He glanced around at the cans, glasses, and bottles of alcohol scattered around the room. Most of the puddles had dried, but there was still a few here and there.

 The living room was deserted now too, except for someone curled up asleep on the couch. Apparently everyone thought it was below them to clean  _ their own dorm _ . Taeyong was shocked. He mustn’t have noticed it before dance, but it was filthy.

 Picking his way through the mess, Taeyong cleaned his way to the sleeping person on the couch, who happened to be Winwin. A smile curled on Taeyong’s lips as he looked at the sleeping boy. He looked so tired and childish, Taeyong almost didn’t wake him. But, Taeyong’s hatred for the mess was greater than Winwin’s cuteness.

 “Hey, wake up!” Taeyong yelled at Winwin, bending over slightly to make sure he woke. Winwin jumped, kicking out and looking at the opposing figure.

 “Sorry, I must have passed out on the couch after Yuta locked me out of our room and fell asleep,” he said while rubbing his eyes. He sits up, and Taeyong turns away, satisfied that Winwin is completely awake.

 “It’s fine, I just thought I would wake you before you got a cramp,” he said, just to make sure Winwin didn’t think he was mad. Well… Taeyong might’ve been a little mad at Winwin, but it wasn’t because he was sleeping. It was because he was sleeping  _ instead _ of cleaning.

 But Taeyong’s anger wasn’t really aimed at Winwin, nor his fault. He was angry because of his drunk mind, and Winwin was just in the room.

 Taeyong scanned the room, trying to figure out where to start on his quest for cleaning. On his way over to Winwin, he’d picked up most of the cans, and there wasn’t too many bottles to worry about either. He decided a broom would be best to start, and started sweeping.

 Cleaning took less time than he thought it would, so Taeyong started to check to make sure everyone was ready to go. Poking his head in their room’s, he found Mark and Johnny both dressed but sitting in a dark, messy room. Taeyong didn’t bother them more than a disgusted look. Taeil and Doyoung were in a similar position, fully dressed and just waiting for everyone else.

 Taeyong didn’t know why he knocked on the door to his own room. Immediately after doing so, Taeyong was mad at himself, again. It was  _ his _ room. There was no need to knock on the door to  _ his own room _ .

 Shaking his head, Taeyong pushed the door open, scanning to see if Ten was still there. The bed was made, and the closet door was hanging slightly ajar, but Ten was not in sight.

 Taeyong let out a sigh he hadn’t realized he was holding. Ten must’ve already gone to practice with the rest of U. That makes sense, dance was Ten’s favorite part of their schedule. Of course he’d leave early.

 Taeyong slipped back out of his room. He hadn’t even really needed to be in there anyway. He had just been… coming back in to make the bed. Yes, that was it. Just in case he’d forgotten earlier, which he clearly hadn’t.

 Taeyong ignored the grumbling in his stomach, which might’ve been from nerves or hunger, and called for the everyone to get ready. Taeil, Doyoung, and Mark came out pretty fast, but the others took longer, and Johnny came out wearing sunglasses.

 “Hurry! Guys we’re running late! Yuta and Winwin, that applies to you too!”

 Taeyong kept checking his phone, anxious to leave. Everyone was taking a while, and his nerves were all over the place. He wanted to leave

 “I’m not kidding you two let’s go!” Taeyong walked over to Yuta and Winwin’s door, banging on it  a few times before stepping back to the front of their dorm.

 “Alright guys I’m gonna stop by U to make sure they’re all alright, see you guys at practice, kay?” Taeyong looked over everyone, confirming there were a few nods before he rushed out the door, heading directly for the NCT U practice room.

**Author's Note:**

> So... I'm posting on AO3 now. Yay. Uh, I have amino too, and I post this fic there before anywhere else. So like... follow me (@basku)


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